The 3-D animated film "Rise of the Guardians" is part of the Mill Valley festival's tribute to DreamWorks.

Photo: Mill Valley Film Festival

The 3-D animated film "Rise of the Guardians" is part of the Mill...

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Ben Affleck stars in and directs "Argo," a 1970s CIA thriller that Affleck will present in person at the Smith Rafael Film Center on Oct. 5, 2012, as part of the Mill Valley Film Festival.

Photo: Mill Valley Film Festival

Ben Affleck stars in and directs "Argo," a 1970s CIA thriller that...

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Ewan McGregor stars in "The Impossible," Juan Antonio Bayona's family drama of survival and courage in the wake of the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia. McGregor is scheduled to present the film at the Mill Valley Film Festival on Oct. 5, 2012.

You can make a great case that 1977 was the most important year in Northern California film history. In May, "Star Wars," much of it made in Marin County by a local filmmaker, became a worldwide phenomenon. That August, down the road a piece in Mill Valley, a small, three-day local festival began.

"A lot of the seeds that were planted that first year have grown into the oak trees that are there now," said Mill Valley Film Festival co-founder and head programmer Zoe Elton. "I think there was a commitment to filmmakers and quality - and the incredible movement of filmmakers in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you think about it in terms of the late '70s, that was really the time when American independents were articulating quite loudly from this area."

Thirty-five years later, the festival is still here, and the people who started it - Elton and executive director Mark Fishkin - are still running it. It's become a huge, 11-day October event that draws megawatt stars. Oh, that local filmmaker, George Lucas, who had a film in that first festival (the documentary short "Filmmaker," about the making of Francis Ford Coppola's "The Rain People"), is still around as well - his postproduction empire has created thousands of jobs over the years and, like the festival, has helped keep Northern California relevant in the film world.

The 35th festival will open, as it traditionally does, with two films Oct. 4 - Walter Salles' adaptation of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" and David O. Russell's quirky film "Silver Linings Playbook," starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. The festival will close Oct. 14 with Ang Lee's "Life of Pi." Each of the directors will present their films in person. Lee will be presented with Variety's filmmaker of the year award at the festival.

In between are a major tribute to DreamWorks, featuring the studio's new 3-D animated film "Rise of the Guardians," presented by CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg; a retrospective of Dustin Hoffman's work - Hoffman will appear with his directorial debut, "Quartet"; and a tribute to Indian-born filmmaker Mira Nair, featuring her newest work, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." Also, Ben Affleck ("Argo"), Ewan McGregor ("The Impossible"), Billy Bob Thornton ("Jayne Mansfield's Car"), John Hawkes ("The Sessions") and Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks, the subject of the documentary "In Your Dreams," are all scheduled to present their films in person.

And yes, there will be a special screening of "Star Wars" - no word on possible attendees.

"I think what you'll see in this festival is a lot of the same roots," Fishkin said, referring to the festival's fostering of relationships with filmmakers and actors. "David O. Russell showed his first short here. ... Walter Salles was here with 'Motorcycle Diaries.' Their newest films we think are two of the best films of the fall season."

Meaning strong contenders for Academy Award consideration.

This year's festival is particularly strong on locally made films - 22 in all, including shorts), featuring the world premieres of the documentaries "Village Music: The Last of the Great Record Stores," Gillian Grisman's tribute to the now-defunct Mill Valley record store, which attracted many stars who appear in the film; "Rebels With a Cause," Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto's film about the activists who stood up to developers to save Bay Area natural land from development; and Emiko Omori's "To Chris Marker, an Unsent Letter," a tribute to the late French filmmaker.

Of course, Kerouac spent much of his time in San Francisco, and the novel "On the Road," published 55 years ago, is a required purchase at City Lights bookstore in North Beach. And in "The Sessions," Hawkes plays Berkeley poet-journalist Mark O'Brien, subject of Jessica Yu's 1996 Oscar-winning short documentary "Breathing Lessons." So we'll call those honorary Bay Area films.

"That film is something that really speaks to this community," Elton said of "On the Road." "Walter Salles was enthusiastic about the idea of having it premiere here."

Also part of the festival are several panels on filmmaking and other industry issues, and the Mill Valley Children's Film Festival, this year with a special focus on family films from India. Activities range from a Bollywood Party to a children's animation workshop.

35th Mill Valley Film Festival

When: Oct. 4-14

Where: Various venues, including the CineArts@Sequoia theaters in Mill Valley and the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael.